After inaugurating its first exclusive franchise outlet at Chennai`s domestic Airport, Pavers England, a London based footwear label which is a joint venture from US $ 60 million Pavers Foresight Smart Ventures and Chennai based Forward Group is now looking at opening ten franchise outlets by end of this fiscal year. Besides this, the plans are also afoot to open 200 outlets. Moreover, the company also plans to be present in both single and multi brand outlets. Set-up with a US$ 60million seed capital, Pavers Foresight Smart Ventures Limited aims to focus on dynamic growth opportunities in India and Pavers England is one of the main verticals for expansion of high quality leather comfort footwear retail. In his email interaction with Amanpreet Kaur of FIHL, Utsav Seth, CEO, Pavers England Footprints Limited enlightens, “Our products are premium leather quality men and women footwear. For opening the Pavers England outlet, the franchisee would require a minimum carpet area of 450 - 1,000 sq ft with capital investment of Rs 55 Lakh.” The company is planning to expand its footprint through its franchise partners in NCR and New Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Vizak, Lucknow, Bhopal, Baroda, Ahemdabad and Kolkata. Furthermore Seth adds, “India is a vast country with most of the retailers still unorganised. Our target group is estimated at 25 million consumers which is expected to grow rapidly over next 5-10 years at Year-On-Year (yoy) rate of 5-7 per cent.” To customise European concepts and comfort technology for the Indian consumer, Pavers is the only European retailer who has invested US $ three million in setting up a state of the art Research and Development (R&D) facility in India. For Pavers England, its competition is other international brand present in the Indian market. On this Seth explains, “Our key differentiating factor is our investment in the R&D facility, with state of the art IT infrastructure and our own logistics network in the country.” Commenting on the training to the franchisees, Seth enlightens, “We provide a complete end-to-end retail management training ranging from visual merchandising, shop fits, stock managements and developing unique customer experience. The training modules include international training at our global operations.” In India, the company has presence in 50 - 60 multi brand outlets. In UK, Pavers England is one of the fastest growing footwear retailers with more than 100 shops. It is also known as the Europe`s largest online portal.
